Chapter 4: Aldric Crane Offers Tea

The knock came at eleven minutes past two.

Elias heard it the way he heard most things in the Record Room — as a catalogued fact, assessed before he turned. The knock was four beats, unhurried, the spacing of someone who had not expected a response on the first attempt and was not concerned about receiving one. He had been working through the remaining slips since the morning break, five down, one to go, the erasure phial lighter than he liked for end-of-week work. He set the pen down. He noted, without looking directly, that the mirror had run its relay eleven seconds prior.

He had approximately three minutes and forty-nine seconds.